I make no secret of the fact that I will endorse fully products that I feel help me be more effective as a server. In the past I have written about my favorite wine key, money clip, and slip-resistant shoes. So when a fellow server on Twitter was asking for a recommendation on some great […]
Archive | Issues RSS feed for this section
Is The Career Server An Endangered Species?
Since the release of my book, I have had a chance to do a fair number of interviews. After the end of the formal interview, I have twice now been told how rare it is to find someone who looks at serving as a profession. This usually leads me to a correction. I think there […]
The Meaning of Hospitality
This is not a story I tell very often because I have been known to get a little choked up from telling it. It happened nearly twenty years ago, but it still has an impact on how I view my job on a daily basis. My purpose in sharing it is not simply to stroll […]
Seeing Your Restaurant Again For The First Time
(Author’s Note: The video above was shot in the Jazz Club of the restaurant where I work. I think it will prove relevant to the post as you read on and also serves as a nice soundtrack provided by the incredibly talented Bram Wijnands) When I went in to interview at the restaurant where I work, I […]
Kicking the Cat
Let me begin this post with a story: An animal rights activist was driving down the highway in his VW Microbus. He was happily thinking about what a beautiful day it was. He was so caught up in these thoughts that he didn’t notice when he drifted into the next lane and cut off a […]
About The Author
David Hayden was born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri. He took his first serving job in 1996. Since that time, he has worked for over a dozen different restaurant companies. He has held both hourly and salaried positions at independent and corporate restaurants. He has waited on over 100,000 guests and trained hundreds of servers. He has been named "Best Server in Kansas City" the last three years by the local weekly paper.